MALAYSIA SHOULD DEVELOP MORE BROADBAND CONTENT LOCALLY, SAY PANELLISTS

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Aug 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia should look at
developing more broadband content locally as this will enable less Internet
traffic to pass through international connections and save cost.

In making the call, panellists at the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (EUMCCI) roundtable discussion on "Broadband as an Enabler of Growth"
said another issue was the exchange rate which has made the cost of equipment
and services expensive when converted to the ringgit.

The panellists were Time Dot Com's chief executive officer Afzal Rahim,
DHL's senior vice president, Asia Pacific information service, Heinz Luck, ING
Insurance Bhd's president and chief executive officer Dr Nirmala Menon,
DiGi Telecommunications' chief executive officer Henrik Clausen, and Malaysian
Communications and Multimedia Commission's senior director, MyICMS division,
Zamani Zakariah.

"To lower the cost of infrastructure and gain economies of scale, major
players such as Maxis, Celcom and DiGi could look at the areas which they are
able to collaborate," said Clausen.

Head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Malaysia, Vincent Piket, said
at the opening of the roundtable discussion that Malaysia's existing pockets of
broadband connectivity needed to be expanded.

"It is vital that nationwide access to broadband becomes a reality in the
shortest possible time. Failure to quickly respond will result in loss of
business opportunities and Malaysia's relative competitiveness will inevitably
decline as the broadband momentum grows in neighbouring countries," he said.

According to Piket, the government's New Economic Model and its drive for
greater inclusiveness should help propel an adequate response to the country's
broadband needs.

"The further liberalisation of the telecommunications sector will stimulate
the flow of much-needed foreign direct investment," he said.

"It will be important that FDI helps to increase investment capital and
create jobs, and also facilitate technology transfer as well as upgrade skills
of the labour force," he added.

Piket informed that Malaysia is a direct beneficiary of the Trans Eurasion
Information Network programme that supported the connection of research
communities within Asian and with EU through a dedicated, high-speed and
high-capacity broadband network.

"In the Seventh Framework Programme, or FP7 for short, the EU is also
supporting international research and development in ICT (information and
communications technology) to the amount of nine billion euro over seven years,"
he said.

Malaysia, he added, is also an FP7 beneficiary.
-- BERNAMA


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